The present invention relates to woven electrical and/or electronic cables and more particularly to woven electrical cables having a generally flat construction and a curved portion therein. The invention also relates to a method for making such cables.
Woven flat cables of the type having a plurality of conductors arranged in a side-by-side manner are used for a number of applications. For example, such cables are frequently used in avionic, computer, communication and other devices where space is limited. For such applications, it is frequently necessary to change cable direction, i.e., to redirect the cable from one area in the device to another area in a manner which requires bending and/or curving of the cable. In such cases, it may also be important to change cable direction with out bunching or otherwise distorting the position of the individual conductors within the cable.
On approach to provide a curved woven flat cable having a plurality of conductors arranged generally side-by-side is disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,158,104, of Edgar A. Ross. As disclosed therein, a woven cable portion has a plurality of warp strands and a continuous fill strand mutually interwoven with the conductors to bind the conductors together. The conductors are woven together with a plane weave pattern on a conventional loom. A curved cable portion includes at least one void area wherein the conductors are not interwoven with the warp strands and the fill strand leaving the conductors relatively unbound in the void area. The void area is preferably formed by floating the weave of warp and fill strands outside of the conductors and cable in this area. Under this approach, the conductors are curved about the void area to form the desired curved configuration. A conforming coating is then applied to maintain the curved portion.
The present invention contemplates an improved woven electrical cable having a curved portion therein which does not require a conforming coating to maintain the curved portion. The invention also contemplates an improved woven electrical cable which eliminates the detrimental bulking associated with the prior art curved portions. For example, in the woven electrical cables according to the present invention, there is no bulking of the cable formed by the compression of the weave material in the "void" area. Such cables are also free of the relatively stiff conforming coatings and are therefore more flexible to conform to relatively limited space requirements. In addition, the woven cables according to the present invention have a tight weave provides structural integrity to the cable.